Hey, in the other thread for Essential Metal Albums, I asked if there was any interest in me creating this list, and got a fair amount of response, so I decided to undertake it.

Artists are only allowed one album unless I picked a pair of albums that conceptually belong together (two parts of one story), or in one or two cases, a band actually manage to make two albums that I think are great and impacting enough to both make this list.

The list is in two parts, designated by the dominant quality in the band's music. There are many bands that are technically what I would consider cross-over artists, but I classified them by what I feel is the more obvious quality in their music.

Also, there are a couple of artists that my general lack of interest (or simply lack of exposure) with has left them without an album on this list. So I apologize to fans of Rhapsody, Nightwish (old), Pain of Salvation, Amorphis, and a few other random bands. I feel these artists probably should all have albums on these lists, but I'm just not in the position to choose wisely.

Finally, I tried to make this a list of what I truly consider influential and essential listening overall, and not just a list of favorites (hence the exclusion of artists like Dungeon, Vanishing Point, and Cornerstone), but I did select a few albums that I just think are too god damn good to ignore, regardless of anything else.

Artists are only allowed one album unless I picked a pair of albums that conceptually belong together (two parts of one story), or in one or two cases, a band actually manage to make two albums that I think are great and impacting enough to both make this list.

I like each of those albums JUST a hair less than the album that did make this list. And I think for someone new to Fates, Parallels is definitely the album to start with. The Pagan's Mind thing is a toss-up though, I think both are equally great.

I'm pretty sure most of those filed under "progressive metal" are progressive power metal records. I hate to be a genre Nazi but putting out a list of essential prog metal records without including Leviathan, Destroy Erase Improve, or one of the last 3 Death records is... not right.

I'm pretty sure most of those filed under "progressive metal" are progressive power metal records. I hate to be a genre Nazi but putting out a list of essential prog metal records without including Leviathan, Destroy Erase Improve, or one of the last 3 Death records is... not right.

I'm pretty sure most of those filed under "progressive metal" are progressive power metal records. I hate to be a genre Nazi but putting out a list of essential prog metal records without including Leviathan, Destroy Erase Improve, or one of the last 3 Death records is... not right.

I like each of those albums JUST a hair less than the album that did make this list. And I think for someone new to Fates, Parallels is definitely the album to start with. The Pagan's Mind thing is a toss-up though, I think both are equally great.

Sorry, I kinda just skipped to the list. The two albums I mentioned were the albums that got me hooked on each band. I agree that Parallels is the album I'd recommend to someone new to Fates Warning, but I think Enigmatic: Calling is PM's masterpiece.